Top Player to Referee

Just recently some ex-players who played top rugby have become referees. Three of these are in South Africa - provincial players, one a Super Rugby player, one an international player. It is a most encouraging phenomenon.

In Australasia there are two Super Rugby referees who played top rugby - Brisbane born and educated, Rohan Hoffman of Australia, who played centre for Portugal 27 times and now has refereed three tests and several Super Rugby Matches and Glen Jackson of New Zealand who played for the Chiefs 60 times, Saracens 130 times, the Maori All Blacks and the Barbarians, this year made his Six Nations debut when he refereed Scotland vs Wales at Murrayfield.

Recently Alain Rolland retired from refereeing after refereeing the second most Tests in the history of the game - 66 Tests, second only to Jonathan Kaplan. In 2007 he refereed the Final of the Rugby World Cup. Rolland who played for Leinster won three caps at scrumhalf for Ireland in the 1990s. Up and coming in the refereeing world is Jonny Lacey of Ireland who played many times for Munster and for Ireland A. Like Jackson, he made his Six Nations debut this year - at Twickenham when England played Italy.

The majority of top referees were not top players. The last Springbok to become a top referee was Wynand Mans, a 1965 Springbok who was a top referee in the 1980s. It was not always so for in the early days of international refereeing in South Africa most Test referees had played Test rugby. In fact HH Castens established a record that will never be equalled. He captained South Africa in the first Test in 1891 and refereed the third Test of the same series. The first overseas referee to referee ia Test in South Africa was the Scot Bill Donaldson who had played for Scotland. Biddy Anderson played rugby and cricket for South Africa and refereed a Test. Billy Millar captained South Africa and refereed a Test. And the great Boy Louw, who played for South Africa from 1928 to 1938 refereed the very first Currie Cup Final in 1939, a man who took a keen interest in referees and refereeing till he died.

The three ex-players who are now refereeing in South Africa are Jacques Nieuwenhuis, Egon Seconds and Mpho Matsaung. Nieuwenhuis and Matsaung played for the Valke, in the same team on occasions. Nieuwenhuis when to the World Cups of 2007 and 2011. In all he played 23 times for Namibia. Seconds played on the wing for the Stormers, Western Province, Griquas and South Africa A. He also played for the Springbok Sevens team.

We shall be giving more details on each of these referees, including how they got into refereeing.